GRAHAM — A 19-year-old pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing a car and drunkenly driving it away from a Graham residence before crashing it late July 20.

The incident began that evening when Michelle Long heard her 1997 Honda Accord start and pull out of her driveway. She called the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office and a deputy spotted the car on N.C. 87. When the deputy attempted to stop the car, the driver sped away.

A chase ensued, reaching speeds of 90 mph, before the driver lost control of the car, which ran off the highway and flipped three times before coming to rest on its roof.

“I’m drunker than hell,” Baker told the deputy. “I’m drunk and this isn’t my car. I’m going away for a long time, aren’t I?”

He later registered .10 in a breath-alcohol test, court documents showed.

Baker pleaded guilty in Alamance County Superior Court to larceny of a motor vehicle, felony speeding to elude arrest and driving while impaired.

Alamance County Assistant District Attorney Craig Thompson said Baker was on probation for a July 2 conviction of misdemeanor larceny. Thompson also argued the DWI carried three aggravating factors: that Baker’s driving was reckless and dangerous and that he was fleeing from law enforcement at the time.

Long’s Honda was totaled in the crash, but because restitution worksheets hadn’t been completed at the time of Tuesday’s hearing, Superior Court Judge R. Allen Baddour Jr. wouldn’t hear arguments regarding the monetary damage in the crash.

Baker was homeless at the time. Long previously loaned him the keys to her car but Baker didn’t have permission to drive it that night, defense attorney Keisha Bluford said. Baker had no driving record before Tuesday’s conviction.

Bluford requested a probationary sentence with credit for time served.

Baddour issued an active six- to 17-month sentence on the felony charges and a concurrent six-month sentence on the aggravated DWI charge.